Wise Girl Gone
by Restless5oul
Summary: Hera has a plan to unite the two demigod camps, one that involves a certain praetor from one camp and a daughter of wisdom from the other. The disappearance of one of Camp Half Blood's most valued members hits them hard, particularly one green eyes son of the sea.
1. Gone

_**A/N: After finishing the Heroes of Olympus I had a really strong urge to write some Percabeth, and I always missed that we never got loads of Annabeth's reaction to Percy going missing. But then I was like; 'why not take it one step further?' and voila!**_

_**This is the first time I've ever written either of these characters so if my characterization is a little patchy in places I apologize (I should be good at it, seeing as we're the same age really). Thank you for clicking on this story and I hope you enjoy! :)**_

Mornings had always smelt like the sea to Percy ever since he had arrived at Camp Half Blood. The wood of his cabin seemed to be infused with saltwater, or perhaps magically enchanted to make its inhabitants feel at home. Although it was never supposed to have many inhabitants. Like his mind was already pre-set to the steady beat of his everyday routine he changed into his clothes and made his way over to the Athena cabin to meet Annabeth before breakfast.

His brisk pace slowed as he neared the blue and gold cabin which looking emptier and quieter than usual. His slow trudging walk took him all the way to the front door of the cabin where he heard hushed murmurs from within, worried voices and very little movement. Percy hesitated on the threshold, something felt wrong, an uneasy atmosphere had settled over the whole camp it seemed. Knocking on the door twice he swung open the door to reveal a dozen or so campers milling around looking variations of worried and confused. They all looked at him as he entered the cabin, but his eyes were busy searching for Annabeth. Her stormy grey eyes were nowhere to be seen. His heart skipped a beat as he let his eyes do a double take of the large room, no she wasn't there.

He saw Malcolm open his mouth to speak but Percy had already turned away from them and was busy marching from the cabin to the Dining Pavilion. _Must just be up already,_ he repeated to himself, _yes that has to be it_. But even he didn't believe that really. His mind had already made up hundreds of wild theories for where Annabeth might be. But he had to calm down and think rationally; panicking would only wind him up. Breathing hard he entered the practically empty pavilion. Not a wisp of blonde hair in sight.

His heart was thudding in his chest and his mind working ten to the dozen. Percy's throat dried up so it felt hard to swallow.

"Percy!" he spun around to see a few campers from the Athena cabin walking towards him. Despite never having been one for superstition, he crossed his fingers as they approached, hoping and praying that he would get an explanation. They reached him looking wary, he supposed that he looked a little like he was out of his mind right now.

"We don't know what happened, Annabeth's just…gone. Like she was never there, just gone," Malcolm spoke for the whole cabin, seeing as he was second in command, "No one from our cabin heard or saw her leave."

Judging from the look on everyone's faces he was telling the truth. Percy had to remember that Annabeth was their counsellor so she obviously meant a lot to them, but all his heart was screaming out for her.

"We'll call a meeting, ask if anyone saw her," Percy muttered, "Or knows what's going on."

"Right away?" one of the campers piped up, biting their lip.

"Yeah right away, get all the counsellors together in the big house," he said shortly turning away and marching up to the large sky blue house. _Annabeth? Gone? _His brain simply couldn't comprehend, there had to be some logical explanation, he refused to believe that someone could just vanish overnight. It didn't make any sense. He knocked on the door, his body torn between two responses; inconceivable anger and overwhelming numbness.

"Mr D?" he called out waiting for the camp director to emerge, "Chiron?"

After a few moments the centaur appeared at the door. His face looked grim; did he already know what had happened?

"Percy," he said furrowing his brow.

"It's Annabeth," he stuttered, gritting his teeth together to contain his composure, "She's missing."

"Missing?" Chiron repeated, like he was trying to make sure he had heard it right, "I think you should come in."

They sat in the rec room; where the other counsellors would soon gather to discuss the matter at hand. Percy began to tap his knuckles on the edge of the ping pong table in an attempt to calm to control the awful sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Mr D is gone Perc-," Chiron began to speak, but Percy interrupted.

"Gone?" he felt like a ten tonne weight had been placed onto his chest, it was too weird to be just a coincidence.

"Yes it seems he left of his own accord, recalled to Olympus," he continued seemingly unfazed by Percy's interruption, though he had looked a little unsettled since Percy had arrived.

"But I thought he couldn't leave?" he racked his brain trying to remember the curse Dionysus had been put under.

"Yes so did I but still he is gone," Chiron looked down, folding his arms.

"Like Annabeth," Percy croaked, feeling his frustration rising to the surface.

"Yes just like Annabeth," Chiron's voice was quiet but calmer than Percy's, it should've comforted him to find someone who was just concerned as he was. But it only angered him more.

"How can she just be gone?!" he growled slamming his fist on the table and standing up so fast he knocked his chair over backwards. He opened his mouth to shout something but closed it when he heard the sound of the front door opening and closing. The counsellors came piling into the room one by one so Percy picked up his chair and sat once again.

Chiron repeated to them what he had said about Dionysus; people were surprised but not particularly moved or bothered by this revelation. He'd never exactly been a favourite of the campers. Malcolm looked at Percy as though it was his cue to tell everyone about Annabeth but he shook his head sharply. He didn't want to yell at everyone right now.

So it was up to Malcolm to explain what had happened, not that there was much to tell. Silence followed his announcement, Percy could feel every pair of eyes shift to him as though he was supposed to say something, do something or even have already formulated a plan. He couldn't do that, not now. Annabeth had always been better at coming up with plans anyway, ones that worked that is. He felt a lump rise in his throat that he swallowed with some difficulty.

"Then where do we start looking?" Will Solace asked the room, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Percy continued his silent deadpan stare at the wall opposite his face.

"We can't possibly know where to start looking. Did anyone see anything last night? Annabeth outside of the cabin?" Malcolm inquired. His question was met by only silence.

"See we should start looking!" Will countered.

"He's right, the longer she's missing the harder it'll be to find her," Clarisse agreed sitting forward in her chair.

"But we can't just pick any random place and start looking!" Connor Stoll joined the conversation.

Soon all the counsellors were arguing back and forth about what to do, what had happened and where to look for her. Percy felt he should step in and stop the quarrels but he couldn't bring himself to do it. The insistent talking was driving him insane, it was getting harder and harder to ignore, and he didn't want to listen to their petty bickering anymore. It was getting them nowhere. Annabeth was gone and he couldn't bear it.

Sharply he simply got up and left the room, the walls seemed to be closing in around him and he just wanted to scream.

"Percy wait!" he heard someone yell but the blood rushing in his ears made it easy to act like he had just imagined the call.

Breaking out into a sprint he ran for the lake not breaking his step once as he dived into the waters. It was cold and sent an unpleasant shockwave through his body but it mattered little to him, he came to a stop somewhere along the bottom of the lake.

With some difficulty (despite his ability to breathe underwater) he let out a guttural scream from his lungs that sent a jet of water streaming away from his mouth. All he could think about was how unfair it was, how confusing and infuriating it was. Was she taken? Did she go of her own will? The screaming left him gasping for oxygen as he kicked upwards and let himself submerge from the water. He took a large shaking gulp of air and swam back to shore debating on whether to collapse right there and then.

Instead he stomped back to his empty cabin and slammed the door shut behind him before anymore could notice his reappearance. His back hit the door and he let a supressed sob escape his body. It was quickly followed by another and another. Bitter cries of anguish making him shake with anger. The first cursed the Fates, with the second he cursed the Gods and by the third one he was cursing himself for allowing this to happen.

Olympus was closed, there was no way of contacting the Gods for help and nowhere to look for her. It was so hopeless, pityingly hopeless. He viciously wiped the salty tears from his face and walked over to the fountain in the middle of the room that had been given to him by his father. If he couldn't go the Gods they'd have to come to him.

Pulling the pen from his pocket he uncapped it and swung at the beautiful structure. A fissure appeared in the meticulous stonework, the kind of design Annabeth would be able to appreciate. This only made his next strike harder, and the next and the next until there was nothing but a pile of rubble in front of him.

"Now give me some answers," he growled to anyone who might be listening.


	2. Reunited

The first few weeks were the worst, even when Jason, Piper and Leo showed up and all became clear. Even when the plan was put into action so they could build this ship, fly to Camp Jupiter and then onto Rom he still felt lousy. His heart ached and for days he gave up, he barely slept, didn't bother brushing his already unruly hair or leaving his cabin most of the time. Even though it meant he didn't have to keep up appearances for the sake of morale it was doing no one any good.

He was forced back into his routine and it was hard at first, but soon he was grateful for the things to do; teaching classes, helping Leo with Argo II and training himself. That didn't mean there wasn't an aching in his gut every time he paused for breath or in those quiet moments when he woke in the mornings. It wasn't the fact that she was gone, it was that he could've had her with him if the Gods hadn't intervened. And the hope and promise that he would see her again soon made the ache grow stronger.

During the ride across America to the west coast he was constantly shifting between emotions; nerves that she had gotten amnesia like Jason and wouldn't remember him, worry that she might've found someone else at this roman camp and excitement to just to get to talk with her again. Most of all he just wanted to see her face, those stormy grey eyes that always have a far off look and her curly blonde hair that still reminded him of a princess after all these years.

"We're coming in to land!" he heard Leo shout from the deck above him.

Percy got up off his bed and jogged from his room to the deck at the top where the rest of the crew was standing. Revealing itself from the fields below was what looked like a small town stuck between the rolling hills, it was set out in very orderly blocks of cabins all connected up to another group of temples and a cluster of different sized and shaped buildings. It looked like the camp was housing more than just demigods. As they approached in their giant Greek warship (Percy could only imagine what it looked like to them) people gathered in the courtyards to stare at them, clearly torn between calling for help and waiting to see what happened.

"Just down here Leo!" Jason called over the winds that had picked up; Percy looked over to see him pointing at a courtyard that had a group of younger looking Romans standing in it. Some were pulling swords from their belts while others were looking around for someone to tell them what to do.

"Okay this is our stop," Leo anchored the ship and let a rope ladder fall from the ship that was hovering about fifteen feet above the ground.

"I'll go first, let everyone know that we're not planning to attack them or anything," Jason said as he swung his leg over the side of the ship and began his descent. Percy followed suit, taking care to make sure his feet didn't slip from the rigging so he fell into the crowd below. The crowd that held Annabeth somewhere within. He felt an odd swoop of panic that gripped him suddenly, but he shook it off and kept descending.

When he reached the bottom he saw that Jason had come face to face with a girl with tanned skin, raven hair and piercing dark eyes.

"Jason," her hard features relaxed a little before returning to a rather disgruntled expression. There was no denying that this girl was the leader around here, everyone looked to her for guidance on their next actions expect from a skinny boy to her left who was eying Jason, Percy and the rest of his companions (who had landed behind him) suspiciously.

"Our praetor has returned!" she called to the crowd her eyes still fixed on Jason, her eyes having now narrowed, making her look even more menacing. He made a mental note not to get on the wrong side of this girl; clearly she could not be messed with. Jason's name carried through the crowd; a whisper on everyone's tongue.

"He's returned with friends," she cocked her eyebrow to check with Jason that they could in fact be trusted, he nodded in response, "And I'm sure they come with peaceful intentions."

She eyed them all very carefully, her eyes lingering on Percy for longer than he liked. She opened her mouth to speak when the crowd parted in front of Percy.

"Annabeth," he breathed as his eyes connected with her. Utter silence followed as he drank in her appearance. She was more tanned than the last time he had seen her, her blonde curls were tied back at the bottom of her neck and her grey eyes held a kind of calm sadness that both frightened and terrified him. She opened and closed her mouth like she was going to speak.

Percy closed the short distance between them and wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her into him as though he would die if he couldn't hold her. He closed his eyes and buried his face into her shoulder, feeling months of sadness and stress melt away from him.

"Seaweed brain," he heard Annabeth half whisper, half laugh into his ear as she hugged her arms around his neck. Percy felt like he could never let go of her, like no matter how long he held on it would never be enough. But after what seemed like only seconds, though it must have been longer he felt her pulling away and reluctantly let go.

"I'm so sorry," he blurted out rather unceremoniously. What he was apologizing for he wasn't too sure, but it seemed appropriate.

"No," she smiled, that wide beaming smile that made Percy's heart swell, and shook her head, "Don't be."

He placed his hand on her cheek and pressed his lips to hers softly, making him dizzy with the smell and taste of her. He'd never been big on public displays of affection but he felt like he had to do that, it was long overdue after all.


End file.
